Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 1===

Mugino Shizuri.

Academy City’s #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.



If you lived in that city and took even a step into its darker side, you would know you must not challenge her to a fight, no matter what. It was an inviolable rule. Before even considering how you could win, you had to search for a way to avoid conflict with that monster. That city was crawling with espers who could break the rules of Newtonian physics, but this was one rule even they had to follow.

These girls knew that better than anyone.

But they still chose of their own free will to step past it.

“(In the end, do you know what you’re doing here?)”

“(Yes, I super do.)”

“(We charge at Mugino together on my signal. She won’t be able to defend against us all in time, so one of our attacks should reach her.)”

Item wasn’t an easygoing enough group to hold a lengthy strategy meeting right in front of their target who had a deadly projectile attack. They compressed the information in something similar to shorthand and instantly conveyed their general intentions with only their eyes and fingers.

Since she was a Level 4 who specialized in defense, Kinuhata managed to keep up despite being new to the team.

“(The one thing we have going for us is that Mugino’s power is super offense-oriented. ''Which means it isn’t good for defense''. No matter how deadly her attacks are, her body is the same as anyone else’s!! She’s a super normal human who will pass out if we rattle her brain or compress her hear-”



It came without warning.

She didn’t even use her palm. Mugino Shizuri sent a storm of fearsome beams shooting from all across her body.



They didn’t have time to wait for the signal. Takitsubo and Frenda leaped toward Kinuhata, who was standing still in shock, and forcibly knocked her to the ground.

It no longer mattered that they were with Item.

The primary target of Mugino Shizuri’s rage was Sakuya alone.

But she would also use her full power to fry anyone – even the tiniest bug – that sheltered that woman or got in the way.

Meltdowner bisected a large Mugino Family vehicle.

Fortunately, it was a truck.

The rear container was sliced away and the American multiple rocket launcher contained there exploded, but the driver’s compartment remained intact.

Not even Level 4 Offense Armor could stop that.

A direct hit would mean instant death.

“Damn!!”

“We need to block Mugino’s view.”

Avoiding the first attack wasn’t enough to relax.

Frenda had no trouble propping small Kinuhata up on her shoulder (possibly because she so frequently carried around explosives and other things) and she rushed behind a nearby villa. As soon as they practically rolled there, a beam swept by at about a meter up. It sliced right through the former luxury villa’s thick soundproofed walls. If they hadn’t gotten on the ground when they did, everything from their hips to their chests would have been vaporized.

“Where’s the super villain!? Y’know, that woman who looks like Mugino if she used makeup to look younger.”

“Huh? Kinuhata, I think you have that backwards.”

“In the end, it doesn’t matter which one’s older! Sakuya, if you’re alive, go hide somewhere!! If she locates you, she’ll concentrate her fire on you!”

Dark soil fell onto their heads as they yelled back and forth.

Their ears weren’t working right.

They had to raise their voices to hear their teammates who were right in front of them.

The nearly ruined building wasn’t going to help much.

Not up against Academy City’s #4.

A tunnel running deep through the mountain might not even provide effective cover.

Their half-baked plan was already falling apart.

You could say this had rid them of their wishful thinking and optimism, but they would be killed if they didn’t quickly rework their thoughts to deal with reality. They didn’t have time to waste on panicking.

“In the end, there’s no way we can get close!! What do we do!? Throw a bomb from a distance to knock her out with the shockwave!?”

“She’d just blast it before it reached her. And when you leaned out from behind cover to throw it, she’d blast you. In fact, even if you did duck back behind cover, she could shoot right through that cover as soon as she knew where you were.”

“Enough smug contrarianism! In the end, do you have a better idea of how we can defeat Mugino!?”

“…”

“No!? You’ve got nothing!? Oh, no. And now she’s circling around toward us!!”

Not from the right or the left.

The unpleasant creaking sound came from above.

From the roof.

Mugino Shizuri was not a stationary cannon.

She was athletic enough to silence a white tiger with her bare palm.

“You’re…”

The #4 was persistent.

She had decided she was killing Sakuya. And she would fry anyone – even the tiniest bug – that sheltered the woman or got in the way.

“…dead mea-”

Frenda and Kinuhata shouted at about the same time.

“Here she…”

“…comes!!”

Mugino herself dropped sharply toward the ground.

From the two-story roof. If she simply landed on them, she could easily break all the bones in their bodies.

They had to avoid this. Even if it meant rolling.

But if they carelessly fled in any direction, they would be skewered by Meltdowner.

“Split up!!”

Takitsubo didn’t shout that because it gave them a chance of winning.

It was more about keeping their losses to a minimum by not bunching together.

The only reason they weren’t bisected regardless was because Kinuhata (still lying on her stomach) slammed her small fist into the ground just before Mugino landed.

It was only 5cm.

But the ground there did sink down. Mugino misjudged the moment she would land and failed to absorb the force of the fall with her knees, causing a slight error in her aim.

The second blast was coming.

The briefest of moments before she could aim the light compressed in her palm, Frenda chucked an explosive.

And detonated it.

As soon as the light and the explosive came in contact, an explosion erupted right in front of Mugino, but there was no need to check to see if she had survived.

If Frenda hadn’t immediately scattered bombs across the ground and blasted the soil into the air – and if she had been satisfied with that and not ducked down and raised her guard – the third beam would have blasted off her head.

“In the end, it didn’t even scratch her!?”

“I told you. Bombs won’t work on Mugino.”

“Why do you look kind of pleased about that!?”

They had scattered in different directions, so Frenda, Takitsubo, and Kinuhata were hiding in different abandoned buildings.

(Tch. In the end, Mugino knows how to defend too. She really is a thorough pain in the ass as an enemy!!)

On the dark side, that was the greatest possible compliment.

An explosion was really just an expansion of gas. When an explosive reacted, the gas would instantly expand hundreds of times over, creating a thick wall of pressure. An explosive was really no more than an object that would rapidly expand from only a small stimulus. So even water, which was about as far from fire as you could get, could be used to create steam explosions. Even liquid nitrogen would burst on its own if left at room temperature.

On the other hand.

It was an extremely rough way of phrasing it, but if you struck back with a surface of even greater pressure, a bomb’s blast could be overpowered. As long as it was an expanding gas, all explosive blasts would behave like air in a balloon: they would naturally take the path of least resistance.

Mugino’s fighting style was a lot like a bullfighter.

She did not have full-body armor like Kinuhata did.

Because the #4 herself lacked armor (and because she wanted to avoid a longer battle in which she was driven by fear and forced into a state of extreme tension), she would charge in, parry all else with her own attacks, and pierce her enemy with a merciless blast once they were defenseless.

But of course, if the others just waited to see what she would do, they would be filled with holes by wild Meltdowner blasts. In fact, they could end up with their entire bodies – down to the very last toe – vaporized as they stood.

7m. Kinuhata’s breathing was unnaturally shallow. That was enough distance to get a fresh start in a barehanded grapple, but against Mugino the tension was so great she thought her heart would stop.

“Searching out a more solid wall will only mean super delaying the inevitable, won’t it?”

“It would be better to reduce her cards first. The idea that she’s just a normal human wasn’t wrong. A blow to her jaw will rattle her brain and knock her out like it would with anyone else.”

But even if she was normal in that way, actually pulling that off in reality was the challenge.

Mugino turned her head.

(!? In the end, this is too much for those two to handle!!)

Frenda’s action was far from a big one.

At 10m away, she slowly circled around upwind of Mugino. The fireworks-like smell of explosives would trigger the part of Mugino’s brain developed on the dark side.

It would draw her attention toward Frenda. It was time for Frenda to show her resolve.

Although she might end up with her torso sliced through a moment later since she didn’t actually have a plan.

A voice spoke from a different direction.

“Frenda.”

“Idiot! Why are you trying to super show off!?”

Something was tossed her way.

They were rectangular bottles meant to contain a strong drink. The many heavy bottles shattered on the ground, a sticky flame spread around them, and an unnaturally white smoke billowed out.

After a quick test breath, Frenda immediately held her breath.

The tip of her tongue and her right cheek were already feeling numb.

This was bad news.

(Hexachloroethane!? It is technically flammable, but in the end, it’s not a good choice for an incendiary round. So why use it?)

“Hold your breath and come this way!! Hexachloroethane has a mild anesthetic effect, but I do not know how effective it will be against Shizuri-sama with her ultra-high temperature beams. There is a good chance she will burn it away before she inhales it!!”

Frenda felt woozy even upwind of it, so it had to be a lot worse for Mugino downwind.

Several beams tore through the anesthetic smoke while Frenda ducked low and approached the voice.

It was the Molotov cocktail maid.

Wasn’t her name Hanagai?

“Hm? In the end, why are you taking our side!?”

“The Mugino Family Bloodline has many members, but it is obvious the competition will come down to Shizuri-sama and Sakuya-sama in the end. The worst possible option is for both of them to be killed here. We serve the Mugino Family as a whole, so we cannot allow the most likely heirs to be lost here!!”

A large motorcycle roared.

Bakyaku was there with his 12.7mm heavy machinegun held like a lance. So was Ougigumo with his nunchaku shotgun made by attaching two shotguns with a short chain.

“Tch. If we let Shizuri-sama continue like this, our Sakuya-sama will be at risk. Prepare yourself, Ougigumo. I know you’ve been polishing your skills so you can overpower one of those Academy City espers!!”

“Are you serious!? You want me to battle that ultimate monster head on!? Hah hah! Sounds like a dream come true!!”

Mugino Sakuya’s condition was unknown, but she had been torn up on the inside when she shot Mujinayama in the back. It was doubtful she was acting based on anything resembling rational thought.

The best bet for the Sakuya faction butlers and maids may have been to get Sakuya into hiding while gathering attention to themselves.

A deafening roar shook the air.

That was the deep sound of a propeller slicing through the air. Something massive passed by over their heads. It was an American transport plane that had to be at least 40m long. With Meltdowner beams flying around, flying through this airspace was tantamount to suicide.

And it didn’t just pass by.

A row of large parachutes formed as it dropped something. More than 300 somethings. That was more than an entire school’s worth of students.

People were dropping down.

A lot of them.

The mountains were different than the plains, but the transport plane was still quite close.

It may have been reducing the drop time for the parachutes to reduce the odds of them taking anti-air fire, but that also increased the risk of them failing their landing and breaking their legs.

They did it anyway.

The transport plane spat out all the parachutes, just barely made it over the summit, and disappeared on the other side of the mountain.

“What? In the end, has the cavalry arrived!?”

“That’s not the Sakuya faction,” said Takitsubo.

No, it wouldn’t be. Sakuya’s troops and Management had already been deployed across the mountain. She couldn’t call in this many reinforcements.

In that case, were these the troops and Management loyal to some other Bloodline member?

“It super couldn’t be.”

“''Shizuri-sama''!!”

They said it.

The maids clearly said it.

“Forgive us for arriving late and leaving you in such a crisis.”

“But we have still sworn to share your fate. No matter what your situation, we will never abandon you!!”

They did exist.

Mugino Shizuri herself had thought of herself as the lonely one at the top, but there were butlers and maids in the Mugino Family mansion who were secretly rooting for her.

Frenda’s eyes widened.

“Argh, showing up in big numbers now will only mean more deaths as they get blown away!! Do they really think Mugino can tell friend from foe right now!?”

“So what?” calmly asked a classic maid as she unfastened her parachute harness.

She may not have been so calm on the inside.

The generic 7.62mm machinegun in her hand was far too brutal.

“When a friend fell victim to a dreadful land shark and I had no idea what to do about it, young Shizuri-sama was the only person in the world willing to give me the solid punch I needed and then save me. Even though sheltering me could have dragged the entire Mugino Family into that conflict. My soul should have died back then. So I do not care what happens to this extra life she gave me!!”

She wasn’t alone.

More and more people in tuxedos and maid uniforms spoke.

“She fought and destroyed a cult taking advantage of freedom of religion and retrieved my grandma’s mattress money.”

“She was the only one who believed my drug addict brother’s testimony and she helped me catch the real murderer. And the confidence my brother gained from that helped him turn over a new leaf.”

“A reason? Why should I need one? The Mugino Family gave garbage like me a home. What more reason do I need to risk my life for them!?”

This probably wasn’t limited to Mugino Shizuri.

The Sakuya faction’s Management and troops had begun a reckless coup on the orders of their Bloodline, so they likely respected Mugino Sakuya after she saved each and every one of them in some way. So when the time came, they had entrusted their lives to her. With no consideration for morality.

The Mugino Family’s Management had gathered for Sakuya and Shizuri now.

(It’s a start, but in the end, it’s not enough to stand up to that stark darkness.)

Frenda clenched her teeth.

No matter how many Managers they had, Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner was too overwhelming. Not even a concrete wall could stop it, so the standard strategy of “hide behind cover until the bullets stop flying” would only get them all wiped out.

At this rate, all the people who had gathered to stop Mugino Shizuri would be blown away by the #4’s own beams.

“I won’t let that happen,” whispered the track suit girl.

Takitsubo Rikou’s eyes opened unnaturally wide.

“That Mujinayama guy could predict her actions, so I won’t let anyone say I can’t do it too. That old man isn’t the only one who knows Mugino.”